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Thinking Outside the Shelter Melissa Taylor presents some inspiring examples of case studies where volunteers trained in animal behavior have played a key role in helping new owners address behavior issues, thereby keeping the animals in their homes – and out of the shelters
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ike many shelters, my shelter, Friends For Life Animal Shelter in Houston, Texas, relies heavily on volunteers to meet the needs of program animals. In 2019, our volunteers donated 21,046 hours – enough to replace 10 fulltime employees. Every day, these generous individuals spend shifts walking dogs, playing with cats, and cleaning kennels, but they also devote much of their time to be haviorrelated duties. Behavioral services for companion animals can be so resource intensive that shelter administrators may consider inhouse behavior programs to be a luxury rather than a necessity. When shelter lead ership does take a chance on starting up a behavior department, minimal funding is often allocated. Our shelter was no exception: Friends For Life’s (FFL) behavior program started out as a depart ment of one. Unsurprisingly, FFL had more behavior cases than one person could handle. The ability of the department to function ef fectively came to depend on the support of skilled volunteers. The previous issue of BARKS featured an article about the feline track of our tiered shelter behavior volunteer (BV) program, which provides participants with classroom and handson instruction (see Building a Feline Behavior Volunteer Program…from Scratch, BARKS from the Guild, September 2021, pp.38‐42). In exchange, our BVs use their newfound knowledge and ability to offer services to our pro gram animals, including enrichment, playdates, manners training, and behavior modification. The more senior BVs donate some of the most impactful hours of all, helping animals not enrolled in our adoption program.
Community Outreach FFL does its best to be more than an adoption and surrender center. Community outreach, including services related to companion animal behavior, is at the core of our vision. We are approached to help an av erage of 180 animals a year through the behavior branch of our Think ing Outside the Shelter (TOS) program, which is geared toward providing assistance to animals in underserved communities. Some come to us at immediate risk of surrender to shelters, others are enrolled at humane organizations without behavior departments, and many have caregivers unable to afford behavioral counseling. Taking into account our already intimidating inprogram caseload at the shelter, there is no way our staff could also handle the TOS cases. Fortunately, our BVs lend us a hand, keeping these animals in homes and out of shelters. Let’s examine a few case studies.
Pepper was an extremely fearful 4-month-old puppy when she ended up at an overcrowded municipal shelter in spring 2020. She was picked up as a foster by Edith, whose young son could not resist Pepper’s vulnerability and shyness. Typically, Edith derived satisfaction from fostering, but caring for Pepper turned out to be an uphill battle.
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BARKS from the Guild/November 2021
© Friends For Life
(Left to right) Owner Kate, Blake the dog, and behavior volunteer Laura practice cooperative vaccination, reducing stress associated with the procedure and making restraint unnecessary
Case Study #1 ‐ Harry and Jennifer: Harry the dog ended up at a municipal shelter at about 7 months old. He was so frightened he would not come out of his kennel when adopters Anna and Zach came to meet him and take him home. Harry gradually bonded with Anna, but took much longer with Zach. Although he eventually blossomed, becoming a confident and affectionate dog around them, he remained “aloof and avoidant” towards new people. He generally stayed away, occasionally sniffing or taking a treat from them. Keeping in mind how fearful Harry was, Anna and Zach made an ef fort to expose him to people at their apartment. They tried a few strate gies: asking visitors to meet Harry outside, look away from him throughout the visit, and toss treats from a distance. Instead of relaxing around strangers, Harry started staring and growling at them. When Harry bit a houseguest’s leg, Anna and Zach were horrified and at a loss. Harry had “seemed fine,” and, as far as they could tell, hadn’t shown any sign of stress. When they contacted FFL regarding his behavior, they felt Harry was unpredictable and his bites, while never breaking skin, happened at random. Anna and Zach were frustrated and thought he might not be compatible with their lives. They had an initial screening call, followed by a meeting at the shel ter with Jennifer Pallanich. Jennifer joined FFL as a volunteer in early
